Norwood Doakes
|fgcolor= |image= |imgsize= |imgdesc= |image2= |imgsize2= |imgdesc2= |birth= |death= |race=Terran |gender=Male |height= |weight= |hair= |eyes= |faction= Terran Dominion :: Dominion Marine Corps :::4th Marine Division ::::Torch Seven |job=Marine sergeant |family= |voice= |concept= |concattop= }} Norwood Doakes was a marine sergeant in Torch Seven of the Dominion Marine Corps. Unlike many of its other members, he did not undergo neural resocialization. Biography As a Dominion marine, Doakes served on numerous battlefields over his career. Mar Sara At some point, Doakes and Torch Seven were on Mar Sara. To pass the time, he started talking about history. The unit was impressed (or pretended to be) and afterwards, saw Doakes as the 'go to' member for clarification on the what's, where's, and how's of life. Vygoire Doakes and Torch Seven were deployed from the Scion to Vygoire to investigate its lab complex, which had failed to make contact for six months. Orbital and terrestrial observation showed that the complex was damaged, but likely as a result of natural phenomena. The unit engaged in standard urban-recon protocol, and Doakes assigned Milner and Jouvert to lead the fire teams up front, while the rest of the unit engaged in a support formation. Investigating the base, they discovered evidence of its research into a type of psychoactive spore, along with some strange graffiti involving crossed lines, and some human remains. Doakes led his men into the jungle from the base's north side, seeing the remains of old battles against the zerg from the planet's past. After Jouvert scouted ahead, he had the unit withdraw back to the base, so they could use the comms tower to try and contact the scientists. It was at this point that Doakes and co. raised their suits' faceplates, as Vygoire's air was breathable. He sent out a transmission, but no-one responded. On that note, he contact the Scion to report his findings, and affirm that Torch Seven would continue with its recon. The Scion informed him that they had been called out of Vygoire's star system for emergency escort duty, but would notify Doakes when they were back in-system. Thus, Doakes took time to write up a detailed report, and led the platoon back into the jungle. Coming to a ravine that Jouvert had scouted earlier, Doakes and co. found a tree with a similar curved symbol to one found in the base carved into it. Around it were more human remains. Milner echoed an earlier sentiment that all the scientists were dead, but as Doakes reflected, the amount of remains found couldn't add up to the hundred or so scientists that had worked at the facility. Doakes took time to get a sense of the surrounding area, which included the ravine Jouvert had spotted earlier, and trees with the same crossed symbol shape. In a nearby clearing he could see a number of uprooted and scarred trees. He sent Chen to investigate. The marine returned and reported that there were huge tracks, caused by a quadrupedal creature. As if on cue, everything fell apart, as Twohy began screaming about coordinates and gods, running off to the sound of a large roar. A roar that belonged to a large ultralisk that came the unit's way. This was the first time that Doakes had seen such a creature (not counting simulations), and doubted that he could kill it. It was doubt that appeared to be well founded, as the platoon's C-14 rifles failed to even slow the creature down. Doakes yelled for the platoon to take cover, but it did no good, and the unit suffered 30% casualties before engaging in a covering-fire retreat manoeuver. They backed up the nearby ravine until the creature could no longer fit through. Continuing to fire, the C-14 rounds began to gain entry through the creature's carapace. The creature subsequently retreated. As the unit babbled on about what had just occurred, Doakes realized that the graffiti symbol had represented the creature's kaiser blades. Regardless, the unit formed up, and called for extraction. However, although the Scion would be back in-system within hours, it wasn't equipped for atmospheric operation. It was ordered that the platoon take the ultralisk out before dropships be deployed. After that directive was given, the unit came under attack again, though not from the ultralisk. Instead, spears were being thrown at them, courtesy of the scientists who they had been sent to retrieve. Doakes' men apprehended them, and he interrogated one of the attackers. The man was mad, ranting on about the "Great One" (which Doakes deduced was the ultralisk) and how a van Rijn would be sacrificed next. Corporal Blodgett informed Doakes that van Rijn was the lab complex's director, and pointed out that Twohy had been acting similarly to the scientists before he'd rushed off into the jungle. Doakes knew something was wrong, and demanded that the group be taken to see this van Rijn. Doctor Vera Langridge stepped forward at this point, explaining how the complex had discovered some strange spores in Vygoire's ecosystem, and that unlike the rest of the scientists, she was immune to their effects. However, as the marines had been operating with their face-plates up, she told them that they had become infected as well. It was at this point that van Rijn showed up as well, claiming that he and his "children" would be sacrificed to the Great One. It was at this point that the ultralisk returned. The marines and scientists scattered, but Doakes's head became fuzzy, as if he were hearing voices in it. Regardless, the marines were able to escape, as the scientists willing to sacrifice themselves to their 'god' bought them time to escape. Doakes ordered his squad to rendezvous back at the lab complex, where van Rijn and his surviving cultists joined them. van Rijn explained that the sacrifices had to be done one cultist at a time (lest the 'purity' be sullied) and claimed the presence of the marines and riled the Great One, and it had become wanton in its hunger. After that, the scientists departed. Langridge gave some info on the spores, prompting Jouvert to exclaim that they should leave them to their fate, bug out, and have the place nuked. As Doakes remained him however, dropships wouldn't come until the creature was killed, the Scion wasn't equipped for atmospheric operation, and he didn't trust the ship to make a nuclear strike without taking them out as well. If they wanted to leave, they'd have to take the ultralisk out themselves. They set on killing the ultralisk, and squad used vespene gas from the abandoned lab in order to create a bomb. Van Rijn came later to them, telling Torch Seven that there was to be a ceremony later that night as the moon crossed in honor of the Great One. Doakes took this as the opportunity he needed to kill the Great One. Doakes set up the bomb on top of a ravine, and interrupted the communion. The Great one chased him into the bomb, which he detonated. The ravine collapsed on top of the Great One, and Doakes sent Jouvert to check if the ultraisk was dead. The Great One shot from the rubble and sliced Jouvert in half. The squad then engaged the Great One, with the remaining cultists throwing themselves at it in order to become one with the creature. Doakes was knocked aside, but managed to shove his rifle in the Great One's leg wound, injuring it. This caused van Rijn to rush toward the beast, and he was sliced into four sections. The shot Doakes made wounded the ultralisk, giving the squad the chance it needed to unload their rifles into the beast. The Great One slowly died, and Doakes began to feel his dying thoughts as the spores allowed him to commune with it. He noticed that his leg was crushed by the ultralisk, as he slowly began to fade from sanity. He, Vera, and nine other members of his squad were taken aboard the Scion, though the other survivors from his squad were killed by Vera.Irvine, Alex. "“Great One”." (April 11, 2013). Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft Lore: Great One Accessed 2013-04-11. After the mission, Doakes was extracted and transported to Scion. He was in bad shape, but was administered drugs by Langridge so that he could provide an account of what had transpired. Slowly he would begin to rant, which would cause the commander and Vera to use stronger and more experimental stimulants. Eventually, he managed to get the whole story out, after which the commander told Vera that the spores in Doakes would be the only ones she would be able to experiment on, as they were nuking the planet. Personality and Traits Doakes had a poor impression of the rest of his platoon, and expressed the sentiment that he was the only marine in it who hadn't been subjected to neural resocialization. Still, he didn't mind too much as long as they followed his orders. He also believed in logging everything in mission reports when one didn't know what was and what wasn't relevant.Irvine, Alex. "“Great One”." (April 11, 2013). Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft Lore: Great One Accessed 2013-04-11. References Category:Terran map and web characters Category:Terran marines